Chapter 94: Old Friend In The Mine, Dragon Corpse Centipede
Inside the Cao family mine, a miner who wanders around everywhere has recently appeared.
Moreover, every day, he is drunk and staggering. As soon as work ends, he uses his extremely meager ore to exchange for a bowl of inferior wine to drink.
This person is none other than Fang Shu. The reason he drinks is merely to disguise his true intentions.
Because his recent behavior and actions are too different compared to ordinary miners. He wanders around every day and can no longer be as low-key as before, so he simply disguises himself as a drunkard.
Sure enough.
Seeing him drunk and staggering every day, and occasionally asking about treasure digging in his mouth, everyone thinks he is just another delusional fool.
People like this who want to get rich quick through mining are something all the miners and mine slaves have seen plenty of. They all think it’s just for fun and have no other thoughts.
Every time Fang Shu gets off work and chats idly with them, this group of miners and mine slaves will laugh and say:
“Boss Hu is here!”
“Did you dig up any good ore today? Have you got the capital to open a shop?”
Fang Shu doesn’t argue with these people. He pretends to be a mine owner who hasn’t gotten rich yet, boasting endlessly with them while subtly probing for various pieces of information about the mine from their mouths.
Once more people start teasing him, he feigns a bit of anxiety: “Wait until I make a fortune, then don’t say I didn’t promote you brothers!”
“Hahaha!” Seeing this, the others are even more delighted and burst into laughter.
This day.
Fang Shu gets off work as usual. Because he hasn’t seen the gold seeking insect in the mine for four or five days, not even a trace, he begins to suspect in his heart whether he has found the wrong place, or if the beautiful insect plan simply won’t work.
He muses to himself in his mind: “According to the book, gold seeking insects are both male and female. If there are no other insects, they can reproduce and leave offspring on their own. But if there are other insects, they must mate with other gold seeking insects to produce offspring… This shouldn’t be the case.”
Four or five days without any progress make Fang Shu lose interest, and he starts feeling that he is wasting too much time here.
At the wine stall, because the weather is getting colder, and there was a cold rain last night, more people are drinking, but the atmosphere is a bit subdued compared to the previous days.
Seeing “Boss Hu” return listlessly, like an eggplant beaten by frost, everyone thinks he is about to give up his grand ambitions. They laugh for a while and then go back to drinking and chatting.
Fang Shu squeezes into the crowd, and suddenly his gaze shifts to a corner of the crowd.
There, he actually spots a familiar face.
The other party has no money to buy wine and is just crowding in among the people, craning his neck to look at the wine stall, sniffing the aroma of the wine. He seems to want to beg for some wine lees from the bottom of the jar to eat.
This person is quite despised by the other wine drinkers:
“Get lost, get away!”
“You rotten ass, don’t ruin the fun of us brothers drinking.”
Being spoken to like this, the man doesn’t dare say much. He just lowers his head, tucks in his butt, and shuffles a few steps to the side.
This person is none other than Tian Tian Quan, the shipmate who came to Gu Ling Town on the same boat as Fang Shu back then.
Unbeknownst to him, this man has fallen to the point of coming to the mine to mine.
And upon observing Tian Tian Quan, Fang Shu realizes that he doesn’t even look like a miner. Instead, he has sold himself to the mine and become a mine slave. It’s just unknown whether he signed a one-year contract or a long-term contract.
Fang Shu feels a touch in his heart and looks at Tian Tian Quan a few more times.
But he doesn’t meddle in other people’s business. He himself is just a “miner” now, and going up to get acquainted and chat with the other party would only ruin his plans.
After a bout of drinking.
The numerous miners and mine slaves scatter like crows. Some return to their bunks, some drill into the tunnels. Another batch of black crows flies in, landing in front of the wine stall to buy and drink wine.
And on this night’s time, while walking the bug, Fang Shu finally spots some clues!
He wanders to a corner that some miner casually mentioned, and the follower bug suddenly shakes its body and clings to the rock wall there.
After shaking its body, the bug draws circles in front of Fang Shu, conveying the message to him.
“Same species scent?!” Fang Shu sees the bug circles clearly, and his expression changes slightly.
He hurriedly steps forward, letting the follower bug follow the lingering scent and walk a few more steps.
The scent here seems to have lingered not long ago. The follower bug crawls on the rock wall and soon outlines a clear insect trail.
Fang Shu follows the insect trail deeper into the mine tunnel. When he encounters some cracks in the mine tunnel, he uses his pickaxe to dig them open and even sees a few grains of gold seeking insect feces hanging on the rock wall.
This sign completely delights him: “There really are bugs here!”
The gloom of several days without progress vanishes from him in an instant, replaced by a surge of energy and immense anticipation.
However, the more so, after confirming there are bugs here, Fang Shu restrains his earlier digging actions. He even deliberately cleans up the surrounding environment to prevent the insect feces and such from being seen by others.
The next two or three days.
Fang Shu simply holes up in the mine tunnel, not leaving it, intensifying his bug walking.
Since he no longer appears at the wine stall, the other miners don’t think he has turned over a new leaf or struck it rich. They just assume he died in the tunnel.
Regarding this, the miner drinkers sigh: “Boss Hu is gone, one less source of fun.”
But soon, Tian Tian Quan, who begs for wine lees every day, replaces Fang Shu and becomes the new source of fun at the wine stall here.
“Hey! Rotten ass, I heard you used to be a pimp. Why did you stop?”
“Hee! I know about this. When he came, he was sold by the brothel. People from the brothel said it.”
“Right, right. This guy has a fellow townsman waiter who was the second top earner in their brothel. But this guy tricked his fellow townsman and sold him to a rich lady, nearly ruining him… He offended the brothel and was sold here.”
Amid the biting cold, the huddled wine drinkers have some fun, and the atmosphere immediately becomes much livelier.
Buoyed by the alcohol, their faces flush red. They temporarily forget the hardships of mining here, and the air is filled with a joyful vibe for a moment.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Deep in the mine vein, Fang Shu’s heart is also quite heated.
But his body is like a stone, quietly squatting in a corner, unmoving for an entire night.
His heartbeat is faint, his breathing barely perceptible, like an old turtle.
In this tunnel, the only thing moving is the follower bug disguised as a gold seeking insect.
The follower bug wanders east and west here, occasionally spinning in circles for fun, as if striking poses.
Waves of scents emanate from the follower bug’s body, carried away by the dark wind blowing through the tunnel.
Finally.
A faint golden light emerges from a crack in the rock wall at the end of the tunnel. At first weak, but after confirming no anomalies here, the golden light suddenly brightens to the size of a bean, flickering.
This thing is none other than the gold seeking insect hiding here.
It is finally lured out by Fang Shu!
After confirming safety, the gold seeking insect eagerly flies up into mid-air to join the follower bug.
Its full appearance also comes into Fang Shu’s view. It doesn’t look like the meat worm described in the book. Its body is like a sharp tooth, somewhat like a beetle.
This makes Fang Shu, who is composed, have his gaze flicker slightly with a few ripples.
According to the Dragon Seeking and Gold Touching Technique, the mature form of the dragon seeking gold worm has an appearance like a corpse fly, also known as “dragon corpse fly”.
But when alive, it is like a meat strip, resembling an earthworm or maggot. Only after eating enough spirit ore, especially obtaining dragon qi and gnawing on dragon corpses, will it change based on the dragon corpse parts it eats, growing into various forms.
Among them, fresh dragon corpses are often not available for it.
The dragon corpses gnawed by gold seeking insects are usually limbs, fragments, bones, or even fossils, so mature gold seeking insects typically turn into beetle forms.
The gold seeking insect appearing before Fang Shu now, shaped like a sharp tooth, strikingly resembles the mature corpse fly form recorded in the Dragon Seeking and Gold Touching Technique!
“Could there really be flood dragon bones here?” He wonders in his heart.
Amid his imaginings, though Fang Shu’s heart surges with waves, his actions become even more restrained in breath.
The real gold seeking insect flies in front of the follower bug and, at the follower bug’s invitation, the two insects circle and fly together.
Perhaps because it has never seen its own kind before, the real gold seeking insect detects no anomaly and is completely hooked by the follower bug.
Wherever the follower bug flies, it follows, extremely obedient, chasing after the follower bug’s butt.
In no time, the two insects fly right in front of Fang Shu’s face.
Fang Shu lowers his eyelids, concealing his gaze.
But he doesn’t rush to capture it. Instead, he suddenly opens his right hand, and another bug shoots out, colliding toward the gold seeking insect.
The two insects collide, and the gold seeking insect immediately wobbles unsteadily.
But when it discovers that what hit it is also a bug, in its anger, it shows off in front of the follower bug, chasing the strange bug to bite it, not backing down at all.
But as they fight, while showing off its skills, the gold seeking insect feels its head dizzy, as if drunk, flying wobblingly.
It finally senses something wrong, its lust fades greatly. Ignoring the beautiful follower bug, it sways and flees, drilling back into the rock wall.
And the second bug Fang Shu released is none other than the sleepy bug.
Watching the gold seeking insect disappear into the rock wall, Fang Shu is not anxious at all. Instead, the anticipation in his eyes grows even denser.
